On Oct. 14, 1979, the St. Louis Cardinals broke the huddle for the first time at Busch Stadium. Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Jerry Robinson stood transfixed at whom he saw line up at the far end of the Cardinals line of scrimmage. It was Mel Gray, Montgomery High School, class of '67. Robinson, Cardinal Newman High School, class of '76, has never forgotten what went through his mind right then.
"This is Mel Gray!" Robinson thought to himself. "It's an honor to be on the same field with him. He's a legend. He's the first guy to make it from Santa Rosa! This is such an honor. I can't believe I am on the same field with Mel Gray!"
Robinson, a rookie, paused, remembered why he was on the field: "And I hope Mel comes across the field so I can knock him out."
This was Mel Gray, who in 1967 ran a 9.4 100-yard dash at Montgomery, tying Jesse Owens for the National High School record.
This was Mel Gray who finished second in the team standings in the California state track meet that year, winning the 100 and 200, placing second in the long jump.
This was Mel Gray, 1968 Olympic alternate.
This was Mel Gray, who would play 12 years in the NFL, four times as Pro Bowler.
This was Mel Gray who struck fear into the hearts of NFL defenses.
"In team meetings before we played the Cardinals," Robinson said, "we were told over and over, &‘Make sure you pay attention to where Mel Gray is.' He would decide games. Nobody could do what he did."
This is Mel Gray who, along with Robinson, are arguably the two best athletes to ever play in the Empire. Gray was inducted last Saturday in the Montgomery Athletic Hall of Fame. To understand exactly how nervous Gray made teams in the NFL, an incident against the Kansas City Chiefs in 1973 provides the perfect illumination.
After a Cardinals offensive play ended, Chiefs; defensive end Buck Buchanan - 6-foot-7, 270 pounds and oftentimes very cranky - picked up the 5-foot-9, 172-pound Gray, placed Gray over his head and slammed him violently to the ground.
"Was that necessary?" asked Gray, looking up from the prone position.
"Yeah," Buchanan said. "My coach told me to kill you."
When Gray told that story last week at a Santa Rosa restaurant, he laughed the laugh of one who was and is secure in his life, his legacy, his memories. His life's story is a rich story, filled with twists and turns, ups and downs, subplots, good guys, bad guys, the kind of stuff that belongs in a Russian novel.
Turning 63 on Sept. 28, Gray has lived in Rockford, Ill., for the last 11 years, retiring just this past December as a special education teacher at Lincoln Middle School.
Working with special education kids is a challenge - like the one kid who kept telling Gray to hurry to his desk to put out a fire on the floor. But accepting a challenge was nearly a given for someone who wanted to play football at 172 pounds.
"Son, how come you aren't playing football?" a Montgomery coach asked Gray, then a 147-pound sophomore, after a track meet.
"I lied and told him I couldn't afford the insurance," Gray said. "My mother didn't want me to play football. The coach said he would pay it anyway."
For the first four games of that football season Gray got away with it because, he said, his name would appear as "Mel Gray" in The Press Democrat game stories. His given name, the one his mom Agnes always called him, was "Melvin."
"She never made the connection," Gray said. "And when I would get home late from practice or a game, I'd tell her I was hanging out with my friends doing nothing. She believed it. Until she found out."
And wouldn't you know, the first game Mom saw, Gray gets the wind knocked out of him. He's on the ground, catching his breath, when what should he feel but a hand on his forearm. It's Agnes. She rushed down from the stands, to yank him from the field.
"Talk about being embarrassed," Gray said.
"I always could run fast," he said, "but I didn't know how to run until a custodian at Montgomery taught me how to run relaxed."
His times in the 100 and 200 yards kept dropping and by the time he made it to State in 1967, Gray was the wind no one could catch. He set the National High School record in the 200 (20.7) and tied Owens with his 9.4 100. To this day, 44 years later, Gray still has the top seven times in the 100 meters, top five times in the 200 meters and the top five distances in the long jump.
When he left Montgomery Gray had track offers from USC, UCLA, San Diego State, Oklahoma and Kansas. He wanted to play football but he was told he was too small. Only Missouri offered him both. But for the first year out of high school, he enrolled in Fort Scott Community College in Kansas.
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